


all smiles and sunshine

by pomegrenadier



Series: In the Wings [4]
Category: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Developing Friendships, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22553899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pomegrenadier/pseuds/pomegrenadier
Summary: Tremere fledgling Victor Cassini survived the search for the Ankaran Sarcophagus. Now he has to live with the aftermath.
Series: In the Wings [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735327
Comments: 17
Kudos: 43





	all smiles and sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> Post-game, the usual angsty gen sort-of-fluff. Title from "Survive" by Rise Against.

He locks the door. He takes off his coat and shoes. He cleans the Tal'mahe'ra blade at the island counter. He finishes the half-empty blood bag. He checks the curtains. He stands over the bed and stares at it. He lies down, fully clothed, on top of the covers.

Victor shakes and shakes and shakes. It's over. It's done. LaCroix is dead. Ming Xiao is dead. He's dead. It's been three weeks since his life got ripped out from under him and he wants to go home, he wants to forget the noises people make when they're hurt and alone and dying—

God, he has killed so many people in the past three weeks. Bashed their heads in with a baseball bat. Hacked them to pieces with various edged weapons. Snapped their necks with his bare hands. Made them twitch and whimper as his magic tore them apart from the inside out.

Drained them dry.

He hasn't been thinking about it. He couldn't afford to think about it. He's thinking about it now. He probes the empty place where guilt and horror should have been all this time and finally, finally, it hits him like a fucking knife to the chest: _he did that._ He is the kind of person, the kind of _thing_ , that kills people without flinching, and waits to feel bad about it until it's _convenient_ , and that's—that's what he is, now.

Victor buries his face in the pillow and forgets to breathe and then he remembers he doesn't have to, he never has to ever again, and he laughs, or sobs, or something, and he's dead dead dead—

There's a knock on the door.

He freezes. Slowly, he rolls to his feet. He takes the ankh-shaped knife from under the pillow and ghosts downstairs. Auspex. One human, bright colors, shot through with sharp apprehension and something warm. He inches up to the door to peer through the peephole.

His eyes widen. He sets the knife down and fumbles the lock, and finally pulls the door open. "Yukie?"

"You're a hard demon to find," she says with a crooked smile.

Victor laughs faintly. "Guess you're just that good."

"Very true." She peers up at him. The smile fades. "Are you okay? May I come in?"

He clears his throat, scrubs his face with his sleeve. "Uh. Sure. La mia casa è la tua casa. Even if it isn't actually my casa."

Yukie steps over the threshold. He shuts the door behind her. Locks it again. His hands shake. They've been shaking since he walked out of Venture Tower. When he turns around, she's already got her sword on the counter next to his, and she's raiding the fridge, frowning at how much food there isn't. "What ... _is_ this?" she asks, waggling something very lumpy and vaguely vegetable-adjacent from the bottom drawer.

Victor takes a breath. Puts his game face on. Acts like a person, not like a corpse having an emotional breakdown. He squints, a little exaggerated, and then grimaces. "I think it used to be kale."

Yukie sniffs the soggy green lump. She winces. "I don't trust it."

"Yeah, no, trust nothing in that fridge," Victor says. "It's been like a week since the owner of this place died."

Her aura slicks over with a harder kind of fear. Not full-on distrust or hostility, just ... wariness. "How did he die?"

"Got killed by a creepy-ass vampire plague cult," Victor says tiredly. "I dealt with them. And their horde of zombies. Because that's the kind of world we live in, apparently."

"Careful," Yukie says, the tension easing again, something almost bubbly sparking through the cloud of colors. "You're nearly a hunter yourself."

Victor screws his eyes shut for a moment and cuts the Auspex. Using it is reflex, now, but it still feels like cheating. He breathes again, deep and careful. "I guess."

Yukie watches him, then tosses the expired kale back in the fridge drawer. "It's nearly dawn. I'm going out to get real food—something has to be open, right? Don't go anywhere. Or I'll have to track you down again, and that would just be embarrassing for you."

He nods, not quite able to crack a smile at the teasing. Are they friends? Is that even allowed? Probably not, but the Camarilla just got its head blown up and the Anarchs don't care as long as you're not being stupid, so—and why does he care, anyway? Why should he give one single fuck?

Yukie has never tried to kill him, coerced him into doing her dirty work, or otherwise screwed him over. Even if they're not friends, that means something.

Victor clears his throat. "Thank you," he says. "For stopping by."

"I'm glad you're not dead," says Yukie. "Keep it that way until I get back."

"Too late," says Victor, and Yukie laughs.

  
  



End file.
